章振邦英语语法第五版Tense and Aspect

Tense and Aspect
Past, present, future
[now] PAST TIME
[preceding now]
FUTURE TIME
[following now]
PRESENT TIME
[including now]
On this semantic level of interpretation, ‘present’ is the most general and unmarked category. Albatrosses were large birds.<marked> The speaker does not commit himself to the continuation of the past state of affairs it describes into the present, while it does not exclude the possibility of such a continuation. It is possible to assert: Albatrosses were, are, and always will be large birds.
Eternal present Habitual behavior Temporary habit Momentary behavior Instantaneous behavior Behavior of the present moment
Eternal truths
• Using the simple present to the stative verbs to express eternal truths or proverbs, as well as in scientific, mathematical, geographical and other statements made for all time. • E.g. • Honesty is the best policy. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
• E.g. George was getting up at five every day that week.
Immediate vs. Historic
• Communicative verbs such as “tell, talk, say, exaggerate” with the present progressive to denote an action in the immediate past.
e.g. He left 10 minutes ago.
• Using the past perfective to denote a state/action in completion before a specific past.
e.g. I had written the article when he came.
e.g. I don‟t know what you are talking about.
„say, understand, hear, learn‟ with the simple present, the simple past, present perfective Martin tells me the Smiths are moving from No. 20. Braham is/was the last great representative of German classicism. The Book of Genesis speaks of the terrible fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Behaviors of the present moment
• Using the present progressive to durative dynamic verbs to denote what is going on at the present moment.
• E.g. ---- What are you doing? ---- I‟m writing a letter.
• Information received in the past
present effect
present result
Habitual behavior
• Using the simple past to denote a habitual or recurrent action in the past.
e.g. In those days they sowed wheat by hand. He worked in a bank all his life.
Temporary habit
• Using the past progressive to denote a temporarily habitual action in the past.
• Using the simple present to stative verbs to express a momentary phenomenon existing at the time of speaking e.g. What‟s the matter with you? You look pale.
Referring to the past
• • • •
Habitual behavior Temporary habits Immediate vs. Historic At a definite point or period of time
state exists action in completion action in progressive
• Historic present • describing the past as if it is happening now: conveying sth. Of the dramatic immediacy of an eye-witness account, such as story-telling, news reporting, to add vividness to the description e.g. I was just dozing off in front of the television when my wife rushes in shouting that the kitchen is on fire.
• Authors often use a kind of ‘timeless present’ in addressing their readers about the contents of their books. E.g. • The last example shows that…
Habitual behavior
Using the present progressive to express a temporary habit.
e.g. He‟s working in a chemical factory these days.
Momentary vs. Instantaneous behavior
• INSTANTANEOUS PRESENT occurs where the verb refers to a single action begun and completed approximately at the moment of speech.
• Rather restricted situations occur
• 1) commentaries: • Fernandez shoots! • 2) demonstrations and other self-commentaries: • I enclose a form of application. • 3) special exclamatory sentences with initial adverbials: • Here comes the winner! • 4) performatives: • apologize, advise, request, predict, etc.
• Using the simple present to dynamic verbs to express habitual or ecurrent present.
e.g. Father doesn‟t smoke. Percy often goes to his office by underground. Verbs of stative meaning may sometimes be used in a habitual sense when accompanied by a frequency adverbial: E.g. She is seldom alone.
• Using the simple present to dynamic verbs to denote instantaneous actions. e.g. I declear the meeting open. Haper passes the ball to Jenning; Jennings shoots and the goalkeeper leaps for it but --- yes, it‟s a goal.
Basic concepts: tense and aspect
• One way of expressing the notion of time linguistically is by means of tense. • Aspect is a grammatical term indicates whether an action or state at a given time is veiwed as completed or incomplete.